MetroSEEQ

More bad economy news this morning - I thought I put together a summary of what I gathered over the past few months.  Maybe there are some pattern emerging to see when this will all end.

• – In April, the IMF said that banks and other financial institutions could lose $1 trillion from the credit crisis as mortgage-backed assets lost most of their value - and it is still sticking to that estimate. So far banks have written off nearly $500 billion - half way there.
• – US Inflation rate at 17-year high, sharpest monthly jump since Sept 2005
• – Consumer confidence index at 16 year low, 5th lowest reading ever and expected to get worse
• – Consumer prices jump 1.1% in June - 2nd fastest pace in 26 years (much worse than expected) and energy prices jumped 6.6% in 1 month.
• – Unemployment rate reaches 5.5% in May from 5% - it is the fastest pace in 20 years.
• – Producer prices up 1.4% in May - 7.2% higher than they were a year ago.  This is the 8th consecutive month that prices had risen by more than 6% on an annual basis.
• – US foreclosures up 57% in January - there was a 9-% increase in the number of houses being repossessed by banks compared with January 2007.
• – Crude oil is 80% higher than it was 1 year ago, and 40% higher at the start of the year.
• – Health care spending to double in 2017
• – Economy is #1 issue on voters minds

Maybe review sites should stop thinking how they can lure local businesses into doing more and more online advertising and think about how we can help them